Drunken racist threatens to blow up shop

A drunk customer threatened to blow up a Macclesfield off-licence during a tirade of racist abuse against the bewildered owner. Sentencing Michael Anthony Bradley to a community order, a judge said his actions had made shop worker Mohammad Usman feel like ‘a stranger in his own land’.

Counsel for the prosecution, Robert Philpotts, told how a ‘very drunk’ Bradley yelled a torrent of racist abuse, shouting ‘you touched my missus’ and ‘I’m going to come back to blow your shop up’.

Mr Philpotts added: "He (the victim) was frightened and thought that the defendant was going to smash the shop up. The other man tried to calm him down. Half an hour later, he returned to the shop but was with a female. Mr Usman was on the telephone to the police. The female kept saying ‘it’s not him, it’s the other guy’."

Bradley hurled more abuse at Mr Usman before an off-duty policeman came to help.

The couple then fell into a ‘heap in the road’.

Police later tracked Bradley down to a house on Mill Lane where he tried to escape by jumping over a wall.

He pleaded guilty to racially aggravated fear of violence at an earlier hearing.

Debra White, counsel for the defence, told the court: "It is something he (Bradley) deeply regrets."

Judge Stephen Clarke told Bradley: "This caused a good degree of upset to Mr Usman, as far as he’s concerned he is British and respects this country. Clearly when you speak to him in that way that makes him feel like a stranger in his own land. You’re not treating him with the dignity every person is entitled to."

Bradley was sentenced to a community order for 12 months with a supervision requirement. He must also attend an Addressing Substance Related Offending programme.

After the sentence, victim Mohammed Usman, 24, from Levenshulme, told the Express he and his family bought the Mill Lane shop because they thought it would be safer than Manchester.

He said: "I have been here four years and I have only had two problems, in this area it’s not common, I know areas like Longsight in Manchester where kids will throw stones at your window for not serving them, so I have been lucky here.

"I wasn’t scared because I knew I had done nothing wrong, but when he started racially abusing me, that’s when I thought I would have to get the police involved. I am happy with the sentence he got, as long as he knows he is banned from coming back into the shop again."

His brother Mohammad Arslan, 21, who also works at the shop, added: "I am pleased that the police and courts have decided to do something about this.

"Hopefully his punishment will make people think twice before coming in drunk and shouting abuse at us.

"The punishment for this sort of behaviour should be more harsh because if police and courts let it continue it will just breed more bad feeling and resentment between different races."